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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • whether telegram was setup as a honeypot or got taken over or somehow is still independent and free of nation-state influence is a) beyond the expertise of any and all participants ITT and b) besides the point.

    the main point is telegram’s honcho when faced with the perfectly valid question (E2EE when?) throwing out one smoke screen after the other, shit noone asked or cared about and conflating unrelated crap to spread FUD - signal is CIA backed, whatsapp turns over metadata, all crypto is blown by NSA so we’re better off without, we can’t have encrypted channels (no1 axed for that), etc.

    if he’s being cagey and lying about plainly evident things, what else is he untruthful about?

    there are FOSS telegram clients out there and adding on E2EE is trivial (remember Pidgin and OTR over Google’s XMPP?). the fact that that’s explicitly against telegram’s TOS and that they’re adamant about leaving all your shit unencrypted “in the cloud” draws but one conclusion.


  • doesn’t have to be, it’s enough it’s not propped up by venture capital. all the results of enshittification are directly the result of venture capital wanting a 100x return on their investment.

    a privately owned business that’s not focused on 100x-ing someones investment but content with the profit their enterprise generates (think Steam) is inherently good to its customers.


  • people are missing the mark; the “not hiding” is an imposed narrative, a straw man argument and a false dichotomy, all in one.

    the issue is not whether you have or don’t something to hide, as this “hide” part implies something inherently sinister. the issue is you being forced to share stuff you haven’t decided to do so.

    when I’m not sharing the quality of my morning’s stool across all my social media outlets, it’s not something I’m hiding, it’s something I haven’t decided on sharing with the public. consequently, I don’t allow my software, hardware, service provider, government, or whoever-the-fuck to do it for me.

    so what this false equivalency is doing is moving the onus from the evildoer to me, forcing me to explain why I don’t like what this fucker is doing. fuck him and the horse he rode in on.



  • first off chill out, Jason Bourne.

    the threat mitigation is handled based on your threat model, not on a “defend all bases against anyone” approach. once you answer what your specific model is, then you can start building your defences. if your threat model is spouse looking through your shit, a password is more than adequate. if it’s the border nazis CBP, you go for encryption at rest. if it’s a toddler walking around the house smashing stuff, none of those will do you any good.

    there are people with complex threat models but I doubt they post on lemmy and they def don’t scour the classifieds for used Thinkpads. the idea that there are threat actors out there infecting random devices and then see what they catch is… def possible, but highly unlikely.

    you’re perfectly safe using a 2nd hand enterprise-class laptop, like a Thinkpad, Elitebook, or Latitude, wiped clean. those are tough and resilient devices built for road warriors for everyday, heavy use. the good thing is, they get periodically swapped out for new models, so they can be had for cheap, and a huge majority of those haven’t seen a lick of any significant use.

    those devices are worlds apart from the laptops you’re advocating buying (I assume you mean the consumer-class models) and definitely way cheaper, like a couple times over, while being infinitely expandable and serviceable with cheap, widely available and cross-generation compatible parts.

    the final part is compartmentalisation and fungibility of devices. keep the minimum stuff you need on there, assume they will break, get lost or stolen, so encryption is mandatory, and have a tried and tested backup and restore procedure in place.

    I’ve noted the product families specifically and what I wrote applies to them only, not every used device everywhere.


  • dingdongitsabear@lemmy.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.mlHow private is a fairphone?
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    29 days ago

    not to rain on your parade, but F5 is a downgrade from 7a in practically every aspect.

    I’m aware of the glued shut aspect and there are solutions for that nowadays. getting a SDM870 and better SoC for under $100 with tons of RAM and storage, for me is more than a worthwhile trade off.

    on the other hand, it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t want to dick around with all that and/or want to support Fairphone’s mission.


  • I too repair my phones when they break and I haven’t had any issues replacing batteries, one camera assembly (was supposed to be an upgrade - wasn’t) and twice the screen with assembly on budget phones. in fact, before I buy them (always used) I check youtube for replacement videos for battery and screen. all replacements done with chinese parts, ultra-cheap and locally available.

    I don’t know about the fair sourced part, I guess I’m too jaded to consider that an issue so I’ll concede that’s important to some people. I figure I’m doing everyone a service by repurposing a discarded 5 year old phone.


  • I’ve managed to listen to this doofus for a couple of minutes and then promptly added him to the ignore list (thanks Freetube!). whether he’s a scammer or just deluded, I wouldn’t trust or use anything that had his fingers in or near it.

    if his general vibe of snake-oil salesman doesn’t put you off, putting his name on the thing should. hard pass.


  • I’m curious, what’s your use case that you need that kind of a phone? just visited their site, says $550 for a somewhat mediocre phone. it’s repairable, but with expensive, fairphone-only sold parts. the OS on it needs removing, as stated multiple times ITT.

    a 5 year old phone has comparable tech specs, costs like a 10th of that, you can open it and replace battery and parts. you also need to flash an alternative OS, so what justifies a 10-fold price hike?

    edit:


  • I’m running several opensource alternatives for clients (rocketchat, prosody, matrix) and I’ve transitioned privately from telegram and XMPP to matrix. the pushback from users is immense, they find every possible reason and excuse to stick with the messengers they’re used to and use “the new stuff” for the bare minimum.

    privately it’s easy easier, that’s the only way you can get ahold of me, so if you need/want me, that’s where I am at. for a short while tried to make it work with signal, but a) the phone number thing is a deal breaker (usernames get me only halfway there) and b) I switch and use multiple devices often and that thing is downright hostile towards people who own/use > 2 devices.

    bear in mind, I’m in a dictatorial position. they have to do what I say and even with that, it’s an uphill battle. it doesn’t help that the stuff they’re now forced to use has subpar to downright dogshit UX.

    the new, shiny, superawesome, superfast element x… is crap. I thought Signal was crap - this is another level. I don’t mean for me, it’s crap from the point of casual users, they are coming from the super polished world of telegram and imessage and twitter and friends and everything about this is off-putting. a lot of them need help setting this up, especially if it’s a multi-device scenario.

    the immediate future looks bleak and I don’t see an important development on the horizon that would change any of this. but, that’s how telegram spread, early adopters switching to it and promoting it and dragging normies along. let’s hope for a repeat.



  • Obligatory “this some young people shit”.

    Young people do and say stupid shit to come off as edgy and the vast majority of them don’t actually mean it and regret it later in life.

    As to your question, that’s why you date people, to see if they’re good, for you and otherwise. You don’t go “red flag!” -> napalm!!!, you evaluate contexts and repeat occurrences of perceived wrongs.




  • first off, I have serious doubts that any one dude - or even a group of those for that matter - can ascertain the security of such a complex system; a browser is essentially an operating system, with all the layers and complexities that entails.

    even if you’re somewhat successful in such an endeavor, I don’t really care if it potentially is. chromium comes from those shitmakers and I’m not willingly using anything they had their nasty fingers in. they threw one shovel of shit too many on the heap and they are now forever on my ignore list. if that means that I don’t get to access certain domains, sites, and/or apps - so be it, I’ll make do without.